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Derek Kerr, the founder of online furniture store LoungeLovers, says established funders can fight back by supporting businesses early in their life because they will always be reluctant to change once a relationship is forged.

“If you can capture SMEs at the beginning, then you have them all the way through because we are time poor and because of loyalty," Mr Kerr said.

“We follow the path of least resistance; I don’t want to have to go to another bank."

Small business has always had greater difficulty accessing funding because of their higher risk.

But Ms Claes said banks had “dreadfully underserved" them.

A big advantage for banks is that they are well known and trusted.

But as the trust grew in online alternatives, Ms Claes warned banks would only keep small business customers if they stopped treating them all the same.

“Banks have rich pools of customers, great access to customer data and are experts at managing risk, but we need to get a lot more granular on how we think about the different types of SME businesses and their specific needs," she said. “Without access to capital, SMEs will either choose another traditional provider, or another provider."

Chinese online wholesaler Alibaba, for example, encourages merchants to use its Alipay, which provides a quick way to pay online.

As well as serving Chinese customers who want to pay in yuan, it appeals to importers of goods made in China.

Mr Kerr said he would use them because all his products were made in China.

“We buy everything from China, so I will use Alipay because they vet the ­suppliers. So I don’t have to go to China to check the sofas," he told a conference in Sydney on Thursday organised by consultant RFi.

MasterCard’s head of commercial payments for Australia, Grant Johnstone, described Alipay as a “frenemy".

“They have 200 million cards on issue. They are significant because they have access to 1.5 billion people. It will have some sway," he said.

But the test will be how relevant it is to customers.

ANZ Bank’s head of merchant ­services and commercial cards, Blair Keenan, said there was suddenly a plethora of competing payments ­providers crowding the web pages of online sellers.

“We’re in this transitionary period where there is going to be a fair bit of noise before the reality lands. The two major [card] schemes have got their [digital] wallets coming out, the major retailers have got their wallets, the banks are looking at their position.

“I have only one physical wallet, I don’t need 10 virtual wallets. No one quite knows, to be honest, but I think there is going to be a bit more confusion before the dust settles."

Mr Kerr said they get a lot of offers from non-bank payment providers.

But he wants one e-wallet provider to win out.

“Hopefully, one of the wallet ­solutions comes through and it just auto-populates because we want to minimise the card abandonment rates.

“So you choose your card, it auto-populates – buy."

Although small businesses are diverse, several commented that in payments and in funding they all have just a few needs in common. Whoever does these best will win in the end.

Mr Johnstone said they have two big problems: lack of time and cash flow.

But competitors to card companies and banks are gaining a foothold because they are solving these ­problems in new ways.

He said the incumbents still had trust and security on their side but this was being questioned.

“No matter what their segment, they don’t want to leave their primary banker relationship, but as soon as you start introducing new technologies, they will go wherever the price is right and the experience is good," he said.

“You have to take things to them that they hadn’t thought about and educate them [about how] safe and secure they are."